Former Evergreen student sentenced in China

The father of an American wanted for ecoterrorism attacks in the western United States said Saturday that his son was sentenced to three years in prison in China after pleading guilty to drug charges in that country.

Justin Franchi Solondz, 30, was sentenced Friday in Dali, a city in southwestern China’s Yunnan province, according to Chinese and American officials. His father, Paul Solondz, said his son pleaded guilty last month.

Solondz said his son was arrested in China during a drug sweep in March, and authorities later found 33 pounds of marijuana leaves buried in the courtyard of a home he rented.

Justin Solondz, a former student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia who grew up in Randolph, N.J., was indicted in California and Washington state in 2006 in connection with a series of arsons attributed to “the Family,” a collection of radical environmentalists aligned with the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts.